Drum Programming Workshop

Drum Programming is one of the most fun elements in music production. Not only that, it is extremely beneficial as part of one’s rhythmical and technical development.This workshop is not focused on any one particular style. It provides a general overview of “percussive” creativity which can then be applied to any genre.1. It will teach you a lot about “rhythmic sense” - the interplay of different components and rhythmic layering.2. It will improve your piano/keyboard technique in relation to developing strong finger independence.3. It will benefit your co-ordination – hand communication (through assigning specific percussive duties to individual fingers of each hand).4. It will put the fun back into rhythm learning.

Workshop Content

The importance of Pulse and how it works

Dividing it up

Working with the inner metronome

Being able to count!

Coordination exercises

How to create great “live” and “realistic” sounding drum performances

How to “Groove”

How to interact with the bass guitar

Space to breathe

Creative programming techniques

Thinking outside of the drum box

Group exercises

Real time Drum Programming

Thinking like a drummer

Key mapping

Finger techniques to emulate real drum rudiments – ultra realism

Hand Coordination exercises

Patterns – the three elements

Tempo, pattern, sounds

The fundamental differences between styles

Half time – Double time – altering the perception

Increasing and reducing energy – subdividing the beat

Different Time Signatures

Accents

Displacing the beat

Fills

Polyrhythms

Live demos using a variety of virtual acoustic and electronic drum kits

Step Time Drum Programming

Creation of patterns

Number crunching

Super Loopers

Bespoke beats

“Art Conversion” – visually dominated patterns

Soundscapes

Layering, panning and depth – (NSEW) north, south, east and west

Drama in Drums - creating compelling and dynamic rhythm sequences

Plug-ins – discussion on the type of plugs used for creating some of the demos